The Ravenclaw Secrets
by Demon Barber
Summary: The series go around Helena Ravenclaw and all her troubles she went through that made her eventually escape to Albania. All of this involves her mother Rowena, her best friend Marianne, and her secret love, Arnold Canton, the Baron of Welsh.
1. Prologue

**THE RAVENCLAW SECRETS**

PROLOGUE

She was back. They could see her climbing the stairs, with her magical possessions floating behind her. They knew she wouldn't want to stay off school more than a month. A little baby could be seen covered in the witch's clothes.

"Welcome back, Rowena." said Godric.

"How are you? Don't you think you should stay…?"

"I'm fine, Helga. Don't worry about me." interrupted Rowena.

"How's the child?" asked Godric.

"She is fine."

"She? I thought it was a male."

"Well, Salazar, it came up to be a girl... I'm naming her Helena, after her father's mother." said softly Rowena, while looking at her sleeping daughter.

"Whatever. I only hope that baby doesn't make much trouble in the school." growled Salazar.

"Oh, please! She is, what, a month old?" shouted Helga.

"I'm only saying. We have enough trouble with the students. I don't have to worry about another child."

"Oh, as if that can kill you." said Godric with a laugh.

"Well, come on. We have to prepare everything for the upcoming course. The students are coming, when, in two weeks?" said Rowena as she entered Hogwarts's main hall.

"Hummm, Rowena, I don't think you should…" murmured Godric while trying to catch her.

"I told you I'm fine. I'm perfectly capable of preparing schedules and cast protection charms" And with this she went to the first floor stairs, heading to her bedroom at the highest tower on the school's west side.

Godric knew it would be useless to fight with her, and Helga understood this as well. They both also headed to their respective bedrooms, leaving Salazar alone. He only frowned as he closed the gigantic wood main door, mad about the new child that just entered his life.


	2. Chaotic Charms

Chapter 1

Chaotic Charms

Charms was due in the third floor and she was nearly in the sixth. She couldn't make it. And she also knew that being the daughter of the teacher wouldn't help that much; on the contrary, it will make things worse. She could imagine her mom shouting at her that very night:

"How many times had I told you, Helena?! You'll never going to learn something if you keep getting late to class! You're leaving the school in less than a year! Your final tests are approaching and soon you'll be by your own in a world that will eat you alive! Please…"

She had heard that sermon at least three times in the last month. And she was yet late again.

Helena stopped at the staircases leading to the fifth floor and thought. Then she got the idea. Her mom, along with the other headmasters, had told her and the rest of the students specifically not to apparate inside the school grounds. They told them the school had shield protections around it, but she knew that wasn't true. Since that fourth-grader, Jean McCarthy, had apparated involuntarily near the Forbidden Forest, they've been thinking about new spells they can cast around Hogwarts, but they hadn't done something powerful enough yet. Besides, she turned seventeen last November, so, legally talking, she _could_ apparate.

Helena looked around to see if any student was coming, then she took out her walnut wand and suddenly she was out of there and into the third floor, where she foresaw Marianne; who saw what she just did.

"What do you think you're doing?" she whispered as she turned around looking if someone else had seen her apparate there.

"I know, I know. But I was going to be late. Again. You know what she says when I'm late." said totally calmly Helena.

"What about all of the protection spells?"

"Oh! You don't believe that stuff, do you? They've been saying that lie ever since the girl apparated on the forest." said Helena.

"They're smarter than you think, Helena. They founded the school. Have you ever looked at least at the size of the school?!" pointed Marianne.

"Please, I live here! I don't go home during summer or Christmas. Please don't talk me about the size of the school because I know every inch of it. I spend every single second of my life with them. Don't you think I know them well enough to say that they're much less than they appear?"

"Who?" said a hard female voice behind them. Professor Ravenclaw had that dirty and harsh look she used instead of scolding. She was standing right behind her daughter and Marianne. They both turned around, one of them more scared than the other one. "Who is less than they appear, Helena?"

"No one." answered Helena as cold as her mother.

"Are you sure? I love to learn new things." said Ravenclaw. The silence that followed her made her realize that Helena would say no more. "Well, in that case we better get class started or we'll be late." Then she turned around and entered her classroom, which was no more than fifteen feet away from them. Marianne and Helena followed her and took their seats.

"That was close." whispered Marianne as she took her wand out of her robes.

"No. You have no idea what close is." answered Helena.

"Ladies, the class already started. If you're so interested in talking, can you please tell us where we left last class, Miss Hawke?" Ravenclaw interrupted.

"Hummm…I think we were on…I mean, you know…" Marianne was frozen.

"Ignicurtus Charm, Miss Hawke, Ignicurtus Charm. You better start paying more attention or you'll fail your final tests. Now, can please someone tell me what is the use of the Ignicurtus Charm." A red-head guy raised his hand. "Mr. Kayne?"

"Flaming?" answered the boy in a high, but distrustful voice.

"Sorry, Mr. Kayne, but that's incorrect. Anyone else?"

Suddenly there was a wave of raised hands, every single one shouting different answers: "Duplicate!" "Invisibility!" "Bitterness!"

"No! Please, students, please. Don't you know Latin? Ignis equals fire and Curtus equals small. The Ignicurtus Charm is to minimize fire!" yelled Ravenclaw.

"Wouldn't be easier to pour water or sand on the fire than to cast a charm?" said Ocatvius Kayne, the red head boy. Everyone else laughed.

"Mr. Kayne, I understand you come from a muggle family and I totally respect that, but you've got to understand that magic makes safer, and sometimes easier, everything you do. You have to understand that or the magical world will eat you alive." said harshly Ravenclaw, giving Octavius a look that made him start to sweat.

" …eat you alive… Doesn't she have anything else to say?" whispered Helena to herself, but apparently she didn't do it low enough, because her mother was perfectly capable of hearing her.

"Excuse me, Miss Ravenclaw, what did you just said?" asked Professor Ravenclaw, making everyone serious and quiet.

"Nothing." replied Helena.

"Well, I suppose if you don't like the way I speak, you shouldn't be here. Please leave the room."

"But I didn't…"

"Now!" shouted Ravenclaw. Then Helena got out of her seat and left the classroom, not before hearing her mother murmur "We'll talk later".

Helena knew where she had to go, but she didn't like the idea. Professor Salazar Slytherin was the one in charge of discipline in Hogwarts, and students were supposed to go to his office at the dungeons whenever they did a lack-of-discipline act. But Helena hated the dungeons. She was afraid of dark and the dungeons were certainly the darkest place in all Hogwarts. But she also knew that if Slytherin's didn't report her arrival to her mother, she would be in worst trouble than she was right now.

So she headed to the dungeons. She had to grab her robes for them not to get dirty with all the leaky mold as she lowered the stairs. When she was finally there and as she was heading to Slytherin's office, she heard a noise behind one of the armors that stood there.

"Who is there?" said she, scared.

"Helena? Is that you?" answered a creepy voice from behind the armor.

"Yes…who are you? Where are you?"

"Oh, good! I was afraid it might be one of the teachers." and then he got out and stood in front of Helena. He was the tall, handsome boy with that black, short, flat hair she knew so well. He was the man she secretly loved so much. He was Arnold Canton, better known as the Baron of Welsh.


	3. The Baron and the Mother

Chapter 2

The Baron and the Mother

The Baron looked at Helena.

"What do you think you're doing, Arnold? You could have killed me!" yelled Helena.

"Oh, come on! You know I would never do that. Besides, I didn't even mourn…" and he stopped when he saw that Helena was starting to get mad. "So why are you here?" asked the Baron, changing the topic. Helena gave him a look that could mean just one thing. "Again? Does she have anything against you or what?"

"I don't know. She just keeps doing it. It's starting to become a routine. I said something at class that she doesn't like, she sends me with Salazar, and then comes the sermon at night."

"It sounds like a lot of fun." said sarcastically the Baron.

"You know, it isn't frustrating anymore, but still… So why are you here?"

"Humm, you know, the usual stuff." answered the Baron.

"Godric?"

"Yes, ma'am. I don't think they respect royalty around here anymore."

"That's why your parents sent you here in the first place…Aren't you coming?"

"I came from there."

"Ok. Well, I do better get going. You know what happens when I'm not punctual." said Helena walking through the dark dungeons hall, leaving the Baron behind.

"What?" yelled the boy, not making Helena stop.

"Another chapter would be read tonight." and with this she turned to another corridor. The Baron gave a final look to the place she disappeared, hoping she would return for something, but she didn't. He sighed and walked to the stairs.

Helena entered Slytherin's office. It was a big, dark office lighted only by three torches hanging on the walls. There were a lot of shelves full of dusty, thick books; a cauldron was bubbling in one corner, next to two empty desks.

At first Helena didn't saw anyone, but then he looked at his desk. And there he was, on the front wall. Salazar had his dark robes on, hood and all, which make it hard to see him in all the darkness. He was so focused taking notes on a big, green notebook, he barely heard Helena entering.

"Hummm… Mr. Slytherin?" asked Helena quietly. Then Salazar looked at her, angry that someone interrupted his work.

"Uh, you're here Helena. Your mother is waiting for you."

"My mom? But she is…"

"She is waiting you Helena. Enter the storage, please."

"The storage?"

"Are you the Minister of Magic or what? Enter the bloody storage!!"

When Slytherin screamed like that, she knew she didn't should argue with him anymore. They just exchange filthy looks and she headed to the potions storage.

When she opened the door, there was she. Her mother. Standing there waiting for her to open the door. She had an even harsher look than before. She closed the door in order to get some seconds away from it, but it eventually returned.

"Hello, Helena."

"But how…?"

"Did I get here? Apparation is a very simple way of transporting, and even though it's supposed to be forbidden, everyone is doing it around here." she said, harder than any rock she Helena has ever felt. "Aren't they?"

"Mom, let me explain…"

"What do you have to explain?! I know your sermon as good as you know mine."

"Bet on it. – said Helena without thinking on it. Mistake. Huge mistake.

"I'm not tolerating this anymore, Helena!! I'm not going to!!..."

"Well, then why are you?"

"Because I thought I had a receptive daughter!!!"

"Oh! I'm your daughter now. I remember than during last Friday's talk, you specifically told me I'm another student within the school limits."

"You know, Helena, you're an irritable, incontrollable, cynic person."

"Well, I had to get it from someone, and I can tell you it was not from my father."

"Oh, you certainly didn't know him."

"That's right. I didn't. But maybe that's exactly what I need. Someone that can actually act like a parent and not like a parent and teacher at the same time, because that's impossible." Rowena for the first time looked weakened. She looked down, but then she looked back at her daughter.

"Is this making any fun at all to you?" she said.

"I hope it was. Everyone says these years are the best ones of your life, but it feels like a _cruciatus_ everyday, each second more painful!"

"At least you learned something from Godric."

"I can learn, for your information. I'm very good at it. But I can't stand having you as a mother and as a teacher!!!"

Rowena was just going to answer that statement when someone knocked the door. No one answered. No one wanted to. But neither of the two women that were there wanted to continue with the conversation, so Helena opened the door. It was Slytherin.

" Humm… I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but there's someone looking for you, Rowena."

"For me? Who?" asked she, confused.

"A goblin. And let me tell you this is the last time I authorize you to transform my office into a social room. Please."

"Don't worry, Slytherin. I guarantee you it's the last time it will happen." She gave Helena a last look, but instead of hardness and hate in her eyes, were concern and deep, deep inside, some love. The she turned around and exited the storage. Helena did too, as Slytherin gave her another indifferent look.

She got to the dungeons faster than her mother. Outside Slytherin's office was waiting a small goblin, wearing elegant velvet clothes. After a while, Rowena also exited and started to talk with him. Helena didn't know if stay and listen or just walk away. But the goblin intrigued her. What was a creature like him doing in the school? Why was he looking for her mother?

In the few seconds when she finally decided she was going, she overheard a couple of sentences:

"Is it ready, Vermont?" she heard Rowena ask.

"Yes, ma'am. Some others will bring it to you tonight."

"Perfect. I'll be there." then Helena decided she had nothing else to do there and walked away toward the dungeon's exit. She had heard enough.


	4. Hufflepuff Help

Chapter 3

**Hufflepuff Help**

"I told you. If I could be expelled, I would have been since first grade."

"But I can't understand why you keep doing it?" asked Marianne.

"I'm not doing anything, Marianne. She's the one that's confused. She can't switch her mother side off while classes or the teacher side the rest of the time."

"Well, it's certainly not easy for her…"

"In what side are you?!" screamed Helena.

"Helena, you know that's not the point…So, what are you going to do about it?" asked Marianne, changing the topic to avoid uncomfortable conversations about her loyalty.

"I can't do anything. But the one thing that I'm certainly going to do is to find out what was that goblin doing here." Helena said firmly.

Marianne was about to say something, but in that exact moment, a rounded silhouette appeared behind a tree and approached them.

"Girls, what are you doing here?" said sweetly Helga. "You know you can't be in the grounds past seven o'clock."

"I'm sorry, Miss Hufflepuff. But we lost sense of time." said Helena. She had to call Helga by "Miss Hufflepuff" and she hated that. In first place, she was too close to her to be that formal; and in second, she didn't look at all as a Miss, even though she was still single.

"Well, you better get going. It's getting dark and the dinner is being served. Hurry!" said Helga while making the funny gestures she used while talking.

"Marianne, I'll see you there. Please save me some carrot juice." ordered Helena to her best friend. She immediately got up and started to walk away.

"Sure. I'll see you there. Bye, Miss Hufflepuff."

"Bye, Marianne. Oh, you better study for tomorrow's test. It isn't easy at all." said Helga totally softly and calmly.



"I'll do it. Thanks." She waved good-bye to the teacher and the girl and walked away through the trees. Then Helena and Helga were left alone.

"Well, we better go too, Helena. There's some really good roast-beef waiting for me." Helga laughed and tried to walk away, but Helena stopped her.

"Humm…Helga, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, Helena. Whatever you want. Tell me, is there anything wrong?"

There were tons of things that were wrong. And she would have liked to tell every single them to Helga. But she was only concerned about one issue now. She would talk about everything else later. Besides, Helga was always there for her. She had acted more like a mother to her than her own mother. She trusted her, she knew her, and she loved her. Maybe that was the root of all of her problems with her mother. The fact that she was never there when Helena needed her. Somehow Helga could read this from her face.

"It's about your mother, isn't it?"

"You know the drill by know, don't you?" Helena laughed, although she didn't mean to. She didn't want to cry either. But she suddenly felt so nervous. Helga noticed this.

"What's the matter, honey?" sweetly asked her teacher.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess it's the same thing. She just keeps doing it. I don't know if she even realizes it"

"Honey, you know it's not easy for her. She had been through hard times with you. It wasn't easy to raise you all by herself…"

"But I don't feel it that way. I feel like you and Godric and maybe even Salazar raised me more than her. I just feel like another student for her." Helena suddenly went speechless. There was so many things going on in her mind, but she couldn't put them together.

"Oh, but that's not true, honey. She cares about you, and a lot. But maybe, she is afraid to tell it to you…"

"Afraid? Her?"



Helga draw out a mischievous smile "Yeah, believe it or not. It's just that, everyone she ever loved went away. So maybe she's afraid that if she expresses her love towards you, she might lose you."

"Everyone she ever loved?" asked Helena. She couldn't think of anyone her mother could possibly ever love.

Her parents died when she was barely two years old, and after that she spent most of her childhood and youth on a girls' boarding-school. There she met Helga. And then the Hogwarts plans began. She didn't have time to love… But there was one person. One single person. The one man that she _had _to love and that had to love her.

"My father?" she asked. Helga nodded. "So are you telling me my mother treats me like this because my father died?"

"Oh, well, I can assure you it's more complicated than that. She is very complex, and not very open with me. That's just a little hypothesis I've been creating in my mind." Helga watched at the sky. "Well, I think I've said too much tonight. We've already missed the first plate. We better hurry if we want to make it to the second one."

"Yeah…" said Helena without thinking on it. She was lost. Lost in her mind.

"I hope I was helpful, sweetie. If you ever need something else, you know I'm here for you"

Helga started to go uphill, leaving Helena alone.

"Helga?" she asked, almost shouting, because Helga was almost out of sight.

"Yes, my dear?" she said, stopping for a minute.

"What can you tell me about goblins?"

"Goblins?!" she laughed "Well, let me tell you they're not the friendliest creatures, but they do make beautiful jewelry."

Helena remained silence. She didn't get the answers she was looking for, but at the end, she heard exactly what she needed to hear.

She stood up and headed to her bedroom. She wasn't really hungry that night.


	5. Letters and Diadems

Chapter 4

**Letters and Diadems**

As the days passed, Helena became more and more suspicious about her mother. She didn't know what she was up to; she behaved stranger than normal and spent more time in her bedroom than usual. Helena decided that whatever thing she was working on, it had to be there. So she decided to go in, although she knew perfectly well it was totally forbidden.

One night, the night when her mother had the teacher's meeting once a month, she decided to go up. It was then or never.

Rowena's bedroom was also in the Ravenclaw Tower, only that in an upper level. None of the students was supposed to know where it was. It was hidden. The only two persons that knew its location were Helena and Marianne. They used to go together when they were younger, and Rowena more tolerant. Since the day a valuable mirror was broken, Helena's mother started to change the password each two days. Although obviously she started doing it less often, Helena always knew the passwords. Her mother was too predictable in those fields. She _always_ used General Knowledge questions; questions most of the time she asked during her classes.

It was late, and both Marianne and Helena were waiting in the Common Room of the Tower for the moon to get covered by some thick clouds.

"Tell me again why we are waiting for the moon to get covered, Helena" Marianne asked very sleepily. She had been awakened at midnight and she didn't know, or remember, why.

"I told you, Marianne. We are learning Environmental Spells on her class. She is teaching us how we can make the moon affect our spells. I know she's using it for some sort of protection for her bedroom." Helena looked through the window. The moon was now half-covered. "And she had to choose the full moon night to go out."

"Tell me again why you need me for this" asked again Marianne, totally ignoring her friend's comment. She knew that if at that hour she tried to memorize any fact, she would forget about it, and it would be totally useless to try and remember it again.

"I told you, Marianne" she said these last words with a tone that clearly showed she was tired of repeating the same things over and over "I need you to watch over. If anyone comes, we'll use that Mental Communication spell we've been practicing and I'll apparate away from there. You remember it, don't you?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty good at it. Although I don't know if I'll be able to do it now. God! I'm so tired, Helena…"

"Good! The moon is covered. It's now or never. Come on, Marianne, stand up!"

Helena pulled her friend from the arms and made her stand up. Marianne hesitatingly walked to the entrance of the Common Room and stood there, resting her back on the wall and almost falling asleep.

"Now, you must be awake all the time. I'm going in. Okay?" The girl didn't respond "Okay?!"

"What? Yeah, yeah, sure. Go." Said finally, violently waking up but returning immediately to the hypnotized state.

Helena decided not to argue with her anymore. She didn't have much time. She walked to one of the big windows of the room, next to a big painting of a Scotch castle. She looked both ways, making sure no one was looking at her. Then she took out her wand and pointed at the glass.

"Ignicurtus Charm" whispered Helena as a fine string of yellow light came of her wand.

Rowena never used questions that were used in her present classes. She always used her past classes, and usually the futures, which made it a little tougher to guess, but Helena always came up with the answer. As the girl said the words of the spell that was used to minimize fire, the window started to diffuse to give place to a new set of stairs, which leaded to an upper level; a level where Rowena's bedroom was.

Helena climbed up the stairs, taking another look back at her friend, who was again sitting in the couch, apparently calmly sleeping. Helena thought of casting on her an awakening spell, but maybe there wasn't enough time for her to do that. She just closed up the magical door and walked up the stairs.

As she entered her mother's bedroom, she noticed an immediate difference in the room. In the place where there was usually a round full-body mirror, there was now an ivory base with a woman's bust holding a very discrete, but very beautiful, silver diadem with two diamonds incrustrated in each of the sides.

When Helena got near the bust, she could also distinguish the phrase "Wisdom beyond Measure Is the Man's Greatest Treasure" written in golden letters in the top of the base.

"What is this?" she asked to herself. She took it out of the bust and put it on herself. It looked like a normal diadem, and even felt like a real one, but Helena knew it was bewitched. She could sense it.

Since her friend Alexandra, who had muggle grandparents, invited her in third grade during Easter vacations to her house in South Wales, she could easily tell the difference from a normal object to a bewitched one. And that diadem was definitely bewitched. Maybe you couldn't easily tell, and maybe it didn't affect the person that much, but it had something.

Helena took the hair item off and put it back to her place. Why did her mother wanted to bewitch a diadem? She could expect a lot of things from her, but not that. There was definitely something going on and she was going to find out what.

In the very moment she was going to take a closer look to the object, a voice rang inside her head. It was so abrupt and sudden it almost made her threw the bust off the base. It was Marianne.

"What do you want? I'm in the middle of something important" Helena thought, using the spell her own mother taught her almost two years ago.

"Someone's coming. I don't know if it's a teacher, a student, or what, but it's coming, and it's coming fast. You better get right out of there" Marianne thought back.

Helena was totally freaked out. She didn't expect her exit call so soon. There may still be more.

"Helena! Quick! There isn't much time…a minute, maybe less. Quick!" her friend thought, and immediately after that, she knew she stopped using the spell. The person that was coming was now in the living room and it made Marianne nervous enough to made her lost her concentration in the spell. She had to get out of there now.

She tried to apparate out of the room and into her own bedroom, but she just couldn't. She tried once more and again she was still there.

"Great! She made the room Apparating-Proof…this is just great!" she thought as she started to panic more than she already was. She heard some noises down below, and some steps going up. Whoever was there, she or he had to know the password of the room, and there weren't many people that did. And she was sure it wasn't Marianne. That left the option of the Founders, and whichever of the four was the case, she was in big, big trouble. So she did the first thing she thought of. She ran into her mother's closet and locked up the door.

There was little place in that room, and there was a lot of stuff in it, so some things fell to the floor. Helena was frozen. They had made noise. Maybe not too much noise, but the enough amount to make someone out suspect and open the door. She stood there, barely daring to breathe a couple of seconds. But then Marianne talked to her again.

"Are you okay? She just left the room. It was your mother. She just went up for some kind of tiara. I had to hide behind some couches so she wouldn't spot me…Hello? Helena? Are you there…?" but Helena didn't respond. She just opened the door of the closet and saw that the diadem was gone, just as Marianne had told her.

"Go to the dorm. Don't wait for me…" said Helena to her friend, and then she broke the spell.

She didn't know if she was angry, or sad, or relieved. She didn't know what to think. The only thing that she knew was that there weren't going to be more chances like that to investigate anything. Then she thought…why did she want to investigate? Since when did she care about her mother's life? It had never mattered before. Why now it did? Maybe because she felt that somehow _this_ was connected to her.

"God! This is too much for right now" she murmured as she sat on the bed. She gave a long sigh and as she looked at the room one more time, she stood up and headed to the stairs.

But something got her attention. It was in the pile of stuff that fell apart while she was in the closet. It was a bunch of letters, all of them tied up in a ribbon, with the addresses:

FR.

_Let Love Die Last_

Helena took up the bunch of envelopes and checked them. They all had different dates and places, but the same addresses. Could it be possible? Could that be the only proof her mother, and now her, had from _his_ existence?

"FR…" Helena thought. "Friedrich Ravenclaw"

She gathered a couple of more letters that were spare from the bunch, and walked out of the room.


End file.
